Johann Rupert: The Billionaire Who Owns Almost Everything In South Africa

Johann was born and raised in Stellenbosch. He went to Paul Roos Gymnasium and the University of Stellenbosch, where he studied business law and economics where he dropped out to pursue a career in business. However, in 2004, the university granted him an honorary doctorate in economics.

In 2008, he was granted a privileged doctorate from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Portrayed as "isolated" by the Financial Times and Barron's, Rupert rarely gives interviews and shuns public events. He's nicknamed "Rupert the Bear".
Johann served his business apprenticeship in New York City, where he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank for two years and Lazard Freres for three years. He then returned to South Africa in 1979 to found and serve as CEO of the Rand Commercial Bank
He served as RMB's CEO until 1984, when RMB and Rand Consolidated Investments merged to form RMB Holdings.

He left the company to join Rembrandt.

In 1988, the Rembrandt Group founded the Swiss luxury goods company Richemont, which in turn acquired Rembrandt's stake in Rothmans. Richemont also owns luxury brands such as Cartier (jewellery); Alfred Dunhill and Sulka (designer clothing); Seeger (leather bags); Piaget, Baume & Mercier and Vacheron Constantin (Swiss watches) and Montblanc (writing instruments).
'
In 1995, Rembrandt and Richemont merged their respective tobacco businesses into what was then the world's fourth largest cigarette maker, Rothmans International.
In 1999, Rothmans International merged with British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's second largest cigarette manufacturer. Before the split, Remgro held 10% of BAT and Richemont 18.6%.

The Rupert family is also deeply involved in the South African wine and liquor industry, owning the L'Ormarins and La Motte wine estates and having a stake in Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons, the wine-making partnership between the Rupert and Rothschild families (at the time of his death due to a car crash in 2001, Rupert's youngest son, Anthonij, was head of Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons.)

The Ruperts also partially control two of South Africa's largest wine merchant houses, Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (SFW) and Distillers Corporation, who together produce one of every six bottles of wine in South Africa and nearly eighty percent of the country's brandy. These two companies have merged to form Distell Group Limited.
Big changes were made in 2000 when Rembrandt was restructured into two publicly traded holding companies – Remgro and Venfin.

Remgro oversaw Rembrandt’s traditional assets, while Venfin acquired the technology-oriented assets.
Less than a decade later, Remgro and VenFin merged to form Remgro, of which Johann Rupert is still the chairman.
In 2000, Rupert was appointed chairman and CEO of Richemont, and the company’s non-luxuries-related activities were spun off into Reinet Investments in 2008.
Today, Rupert is the chairman of Remgro, Richemont and Reinet.

[mvumenimzimela]

Businessman like him should be celebrated in SA and see a lot of his talk in our media, but instead hes's constatlly vilified by useless politicians who have never made an honest living in their lives.

[thabisohitchdladla]

Hey guys Founder and CFO of TN Interstellar Group here, a 100% black owned Financial Services provider. We can't deny he/they had advantages at the time, but hey they did well to take advantage of the opportunities at hand. Kudos to him and honestly I see inspiration from this. We can't all do it but we can at least try. Please wish TN prosperity as we navigate the red tap in the Financial industry 😅. Oh and I intend to come and edit this comment in the next 3 to 5 years with links to our company once it has a bigger and more refined footprint. 💫

[kwandamadela]

Guy's been close friends with Cyril Ramaphosa since the 1980s, together they own literally "everything" in South Africa

[kosiekoos]

Clearly Rupert is a major job creator in SA. Congratulations.

[maambomumba]

A monumental business empire worth study and emulation. Thanks to the Rupert’s for creating such vast enterprise value for literally millions.

[KM_Zitha]

One of the greatest South Africans! He is running private businesses and is the biggest taxpayer in SA.

[fabiandeboer]

Imagine if he can become president of south Africa, I'm sure with his knowledge and skill he could grow our economy

[Guessknow]

Guys, , Open a spaza shop or something and grow step-by-step, stop complaining about the achievements of others, get up and make a plan, the Gov isn't going to change your life, you are the only person determining your own future. Let's start today.

[garagepie]

Many other African countries would love to have a "Rupert" in their country bringing in mega wealth and creating thousands of jobs!

[csmit]

The problem is not the Ruperts it is the mentality of the black people in africa

[rainholdblu]

the Rupert humble beginnings in life is just another story.

[unwoke]

His late father slept on an open balcony and couldn't get a loan. He ended up in the Fortune500 globally through hard work, also removed the architect of Apartheid. They provided for and fed millions of South Africans, incl blacks, women and Afrikaners marginalised by the British colonists. The Ruperts should be hailed for building South Africa. Take from their example of starting with nothing, work hard and be successful. Learn.

[goolpapa-fllz]

That is your problem when you’re not willing to do anything for yourself and expect handouts - you will never be able to compete with the people who are willing to get their hands busy and do things.

[GlenRealty]

The ANC has done the exact opposite of what Mandela said and by the way he was talking about the Oppenheimer empire not the Rupert family. Admittedly, the Stelllenbosch town (77000 people) probably has more billionares (5) per capita than any other place in the world.

[krazzyvibestv]

This guy's family will forever be wealthy

[zeesays]

this guy truly owns almost all the businesses in south africa

[GlenRwodzi]

All started from a dry cleaning business. Amazing

[kosiekoos]

Its a spiritual thing. When you cannot create you will destroy.

[theeprox]

"What we want to archieve is a healthy economy" - was a pipe dream

[lu]

Black people could be like this, but we:
1. Do not support each other

2. Do not want to leave politics, and not depend on the government.